


Waves

by AvatarAbby



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Coming Out, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22930285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvatarAbby/pseuds/AvatarAbby
Summary: After a fight with Tenzin, Kya and Katara talk about what went wrong in the father-daughter relationship between Aang and Kya.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	Waves

Kya sat on the pier of Air Temple island, letting her feet dangle off the side and splash against the waves. She was hoping everyone would leave her alone, especially with the dinner that had just occurred.  
Kya tried not to dwell on the argument that had just transpired between her and her younger brother. _It’s just Tenzin being Tenzin,_ she thought. _He’s always been like this._ But it was harder than expected to push away all the hurtful comments he said.  
_Haven’t you had enough of being alone?_  
Just then, Kya heard the creak of someone’s weight on the wooden floor. She turned to see her mother, who had returned to Republic City to celebrate Jinoras’ birthday. She was getting older, and very rarely traveled, but she made an exception for her granddaughter, as well as to gaze upon the new spirit portal Korra had recently made.   
This was the first dinner that Kya was supposed to have with the airbending family since permanently relocating to the city. Once Tenzin heard about her plans to not work at the hospital however, it quickly deteriorated into a fight about her life choices and no one touched their food.  
“I don’t need a lecture on family harmony, mom,” Kya said, hoping that the water bender would just let her be.  
Her mother choose to ignore her wishes of solidarity. “I’m not here to lecture you,” she said while taking a seat next to her daughter, “I’m here to see how you are doing.”  
“I’m fine.”  
“You don’t seem fine,” she prodded.  
Kyas’ patience was wearing thin. “Tenzin and I have gotten into plenty of fights before.”  
“And that’s what I don’t understand. Your and your brother have always seemed to but heads, but you have never let it get to you so much. What’s so different now?”  
Kya couldn’t help but reach up and touch her necklace, something that was supposed to be a symbol of commitment and love, but had simply become a reminder of another thing she had ruined. She hadn’t planned on telling anyone, it’s not like anyone would’ve cared either way. But she knew her mother wouldn’t let up until she told her the truth.  
“Airi and I broke up.”  
“I see,” was all her mother said.  
“It was only a matter of time anyway,” Kya added.  
The master healer put a hand gently on the shoulder of her daughter. “I’m sorry.”  
“No your not,” Kya muttered under her breath.  
“What,” Katara questioned “Sweetie, why would you ever think that?”  
“Maybe because it’s true. You never approved of my relationships, not like you did with Tenzin. I mean, he married someone he barely knew and was half his age, but he could still give you what you wanted, what the world wanted. Grandchildren. Airbending grandchildren.”  
“All I want is your happiness. That was never what mattered to me.”  
“It mattered to Dad.”  
“That’s not true and you know it.”  
“Then explain why he would always take Tenzin on those special vacations, or wouldn’t care if I came home past curfew, or I know, didn’t even look for me when I left home.”  
“Honey, you should’ve seen the way he reacted when he got the call from Bumi. He was frantic, stopped all his meetings, locked himself in his study at home for days on end.”  
“It was too late by then. I was already grown up, I didn’t need a dad then, but I did need one when I was younger. But Bumi being the oldest and Tenzin being an airbender, I somehow got lost in the mix.”  
Katara stared at the water for a long time before restarting the conversation. “Do you remember how you came out to us?”  
“I put it in the note I left for you guys when I left to travel the world. Thought that it was best to get it all out in the open.”  
“It was a huge shock to me. As much as I want to say that I was completely fine with it, I didn’t know how to feel. You left and just dropped this huge bomb. But your dad, he was so excepting of it.”  
“Dad was always super excepting. Makes sense.”  
“That and he already knew.”  
Kya was taken aback. “What?”  
“When you were fifteen, your father went out to look for you when you had stayed out past your curfew. He was fully prepared to drag you all the way home if need be. But when he found you, he saw you kissing your friend, Lian.”  
“Then why didn’t dad tell you?”  
“I was pretty angry at him when I found he hadn’t told me all those years. But he told me that he didn’t want to out you until you were ready. He wanted you to be as carefree as long as you could, cause he knew once it was out, not everyone would be accepting. So he let you bend the rules a little. Like skipping curfew. Whenever your brothers would complain about it or I would ask why he was being so loose on the rules with you and not the others, he would just shrug and go, ‘what can I say, she’s daddy’s girl.’  
“Sweetie, I know your father wasn’t perfect. Not by a long shot. But he did love you, more than I think you can ever know. And I know he would be proud of the person you’ve become. I know I am.”  
Despite Kya’s objections, her eyes began to fill with tears. All this time, Dad had known she was gay? And had kept her secret, even from his wife? Aang hadn’t kept any secrets from Katara, as far as she knew. But he had for her.   
The Avatars’ daughter didn’t feel any less angry or hurt at the things that had gone wrong in their relationship. They had both made mistakes and waited too long to rectify them. But it felt that in that very instant, even with her father being long gone from this world, an new sense of understanding fell upon their dynamic. A way to heal.   
Kya and Katara watched the sunset fall on the island together, silently splashing their feet against the waves.

**Author's Note:**

> While I don’t think it’s really my best work, I did want to post this because Kya was one of my all time favorite characters in the LOK series. Thanks for reading!


End file.
